Capital Clash In N.y. Cop Killing

Governor Blocks Prosecutor, Demands Death Penalty

March 22, 1996|By Joseph A. Kirby, Tribune Staff Writer.

NEW YORK — In an unusual case that has mingled morality with politics, New York Gov. George Pataki and a district attorney waged a tug-of-war Thursday over the prosecution of an alleged cop killer and whether he would face the death penalty.

The legal showdown came when Pataki signed an executive order that barred Bronx District Atty. Robert Johnson, who opposes capital punishment, from prosecuting a man suspected of murdering a New York City police officer last week.

The governor then appointed the state attorney general's office to prosecute the officer's alleged killer, who, under the death penalty statute Pataki helped reinstate last year, is eligible to be put to death.

But an uncowed Johnson said he would sue the governor to regain prosecutorial powers over the case and overturn what he termed Pataki's "improper" action.

"The people of the Bronx want me in this position. I am an elected official," Johnson said at a news conference Thursday in his Bronx office. "The only real option Mr. Pataki had (to remove me from a case) was to run against me last November. And he didn't do that."

The high-level maneuvering in the emotional case began March 14 with the death of Officer Kevin Gillespie, 33.

Gillespie and several other officers responded to reports that a group of armed men were driving around a high-crime area in the Bronx, engaging in a robbery and assault spree in an automobile the men had hijacked, police said.

The police soon cornered the young men on a well-trafficked street, and a gunfight erupted. Gillespie, an undercover officer, died after being shot in the neck, just inches above his bullet-proof vest, by one of the suspects.

One other officer and three bystanders were injured in the gun battle.

Gillespie was the first officer killed this year, as well as the first to die in the line of duty since the death penalty statute went into effect last September.

After a manhunt that included hundreds of police officers and helicopters, Angel Diaz, 28, Ricardo Morales, 22, and Jesus Mendez, 27 -- all of whom have long criminal records and all under the supervision of parole officers -- were arrested. Diaz fired the shots that killed Gillespie, police said.

Immediately after the arrests, Pataki and other public officials, including New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, urged that the death penalty be sought.

Pataki made that argument Thursday to a national audience, as he and Johnson appeared on NBC-TV's "Today" show, sitting within inches of each other on a couch but remaining worlds apart on the issue.

"I did not make this decision lightly. I respect Mr. Johnson's principles," Pataki said at a Manhattan news conference. "But I cannot allow his principles to get in the way of the law."

The governor's executive order places the case in the hands of state Atty. Gen. Dennis Vacco, who supports the state's death penalty law.

Pataki said his action was "on firm legal ground" and that his office grants him such power.

Pataki and Johnson said their legal wrangling would not affect the trial in the case, but other legal experts are less certain.

Columbia University law professor James Liebman said Pataki had "violated the very law he helped author."

The New York death penalty statute allows a district attorney 120 days to make a decision on whether to seek the death penalty, after a "careful deliberation" of the evidence, Liebman said.

But Diaz's defense attorney could argue that Pataki's actions did not allow for that deliberation to occur, Liebman added.